


What Needs to be Done

by Meynara



Series: Drabbles and ficlets from Tumblr [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Baby Naruto, Child Neglect, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, fuck you third, repost from tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 16:16:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12324477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meynara/pseuds/Meynara
Summary: Working with children wasn't Rin's strong suit, for all the cheerfulness she typically had. She was a trauma specialist, after all, and how often were the youngest members of their society hit by that?More often than she thought.





	What Needs to be Done

It was rare that Rin was assigned to the hospital’s youngest patients – being young herself, along with her own specialty, made it more prudent for her to work with the adult body (or at least, a more grown body than anyone pre-genin). Children had more sensitive systems, it was easier to go wrong with them.

But that day, over a year after the Kyuubi had attacked and changed the village, there was a patient that seemed to need special attention. Rin had been ushered on over, and what she saw at first confused her even as a file was shoved in her hands.

A quiet, blond toddler laid on the exam table. A rather irritated older woman sat nearby but was nowhere near the boy, who was wiggling some but not nearly as much as might be expected. He was covered from neck to toe with the exception of his hands, one of which was in his mouth, and almost immediately alarm bells went off in the medinin’s head.

“Good morning, ma’am, what brings you in today?” There was a professional looking smile on her face as she sounded as neutral as she could, moving to look at the toddler first hand while listening to the woman speak, scanning over the information in the file.

“It’s the brat’s birthday, or close enough, he needs a checkup, be quick about it! I don’t have all day.” Her voice was rough and lower than Rin’s, much lower, and there was a faint scent of smoke surrounding both her and the toddler. The feeling of alarm the medic felt didn’t abate at all from that, even though she had nothing specific to think was wrong.

Yet.

Then her eyes took in the chubby little face of the toddler and almost felt like she had been stabbed in the chest.

Sensei’s eyes, or almost, were looking up at her, and whiskers were prominent on those little cheeks.

Cheeks that weren’t nearly as chubby as she would expect for a toddler…and eyes that refused to meet hers, his head turning to look away and his body stilling almost unnaturally now that attention was on him, the only movement being his mouth around his little fist.

“I’ll need to ask you some questions, ma’am, while I look him over,” Rin spoke, moving to take the child’s clothing off – aside from the diaper – revealing a very, very filthy child. “Especially as you’ve missed the last four checkups he needed. The younger the child, the more often he needs to be seen. Tell me, what milestones has he hit? Is he sitting without support? Pulling himself up to sitting? Standing? Walking? Does he babble? Talk?”

Her face was the very essence of professionalism, aside from her eyes. Anyone who looked her in the eye would see how angry the teenage medic was as she used gentle fingers to prod at the boy, who was eerily silent, though his mouth moved more quickly about his fist the more he was prodded.

There were bruises scattered about his body – none large, but enough to note, as well as scratches from untrimmed fingernails. Even his face had small scratches, some near his eyes. 

“Oh, he used to make noise all the time. Not anymore, though,” and the other woman sounded irritated as she glared at the toddler, unseen by the medic. “He’s a damn escape artist, though, put him in his crib and he’ll be trying to get into the kitchen if we don’t take precautions.”

“Well, that’s good at least.” There was absolutely no cheer to her voice now. None at all. Not even the fake cheer she used with any other patient. “Can you tell me, how long has it been since you’ve bathed him? How often does he eat, how much? Drink?”

And so the appointment went. By the time the woman and toddler had left, Rin was in a quiet rage. Stepping outside the hospital, only just letting her superiors knowing she was taking a break, she was off going towards the Hokage’s office.

Her co-workers’ attitudes toward the toddler made perfect sense now. She had heard how much people supposedly feared and disliked Naruto, but had assumed the talks to be blown out of proportion.

As it seemed to be often, her assumptions were incorrect. But this time, it affected someone’s life, a life she had a chance of helping improve.

Naturally, the Hokage was busy – even in times of peace, he was a highly sought out man within the village – but if the attitude she had encountered, that had brought her to the exam room that morning, was what she could expect from those in power at the hospital itself…

…there wasn’t anyone else to go to.

Fortunately, stating why she was there seemed to get her bumped up, but there was only so much that could be moved aside and by the time she got inside, it was close to lunchtime.

“The Hokage will see you now.”

Rin didn’t even smile to the man as she quickly went inside, stopping the appropriate distance from the desk before bowing. “Hokaga-sama.”

“Ah, Rin-chan, I’m told you have a rather serious problem…?” The older man seemed rather serene for all that he was puffing away on his pipe from his seat behind the desk. While there was still color in his hair, there were spots of grey appearing, leaving a slightly different image than the man had been before.

“Very serious, Hokage-sama.” She pulled herself back up to standing straight, fists clenched at her sides. “Normally I would not bring such a thing before you, but circumstances won’t…allow for anything less. There is a child within the village being neglected and possibly abused and needs to be removed from his current living situation before irreparable damage is done.”

There was a thoughtful hum, and more puffing on the pile before the man answered. “I assume this is in regards to Naruto.”

“Yes, Hokage-sama. I – there are too many coincidences all together for me, in good conscience, to ignore it.”

“And you’re not biased by who his father is?”

“I would do this with any child I saw in the condition he was in! It was obvious that while he had enough food, that was the only thing he had going. His caretaker was rude and almost cruel to him, treating him like baggage rather than like a living creature. I’ve seen animals treated better than he was! She didn’t hit him, and it looked like a lot…lot…of accidents, but he hadn’t been bathed in a long time, and wasn’t talking, and refused to make eye contact. There are too many things to be a coincidence, and he needs to be given a better home!”

“And where do you suggest we move him?” Sarutobi leaned forward, removing the pipe from his mouth as his elbows rested on the desk. “There aren’t many willing to be near him, as I’m sure you’ve witnessed, and even fewer who would take him in.”

“Surely there has to be someone who can, that woman isn’t giving him the attention he needs! Anyone would be better than that!”

“There is no one else, unless you are volunteering yourself for the job?”

Rin had to take a few days to herself – that was all she could get, in the end.

But that very same day she spoke with the Hokage, she returned home with a very confused Naruto Uzumaki, who was promptly bathed and fed and Rin began the road to repairing the damage that had been done.

Alone.

**Author's Note:**

> .....yeah so that happened. I just, can't stand the thought of Naruto being left on his own, so this sorta just came into being about a year ago. Only just decided to start moving things over onto here from tumblr.


End file.
